that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. Now, therefore, put away (said he) the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem."-Such were the last words of Joshua, the son of Nun. Having thus spoken, he had nothing to do but to die; and accordingly he forthwith ceased from his labours, and his works followed him.-Behold the decision and elevation which eminent piety imparts to Christian character! SAMUEL stands forth with prominence among the great men of Israel. It were difficult to mention any character more nearly approaching to perfection. He is, in all points, a finished model of human excellence. His progress from youth to age was one ascending path, illumined by constantly augmenting lustre. He lived in an age of deep degeneracy, when the truly faithful were reduced to a small number, and of that number he was the head and chief. He was instrumental of a great revival of true godliness in the land. His qualities as a judge were as striking as his qualities as a prophet. In this two-fold character he conferred benefits unspeakable upon the nation; but public bodies are seldom just, still more rarely grateful; and hence the reverse, the disgrace, to which he was subjected. After he had attained to a well-deserved and unprecedented popularity, the fickle multitude, taking umbrage at the misconduct of his sons, and blind to the beauty of the father's character, called for a change of government, and demanded a king. The events which followed tried his temper, proved his principles, and illustrated his moral greatness. How noble was the prophet's address to the people, after the coronation of Saul! "Behold,” said he, "I have hearkened unto your voice, in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. And now behold, the king walketh before you and I am old and grey-headed; and, behold, my sons are with you; and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed! Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes therewith? and I will restore it you! And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man's hand. And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they answered, He is witness." How beautiful! Here is true greatness, true glory! His deportment, also, towards Saul, in the unhappy affair of the Amalekites, was highly dignified. "Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep, and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice; and to hearken than the fat of rams! For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry: because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words; because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou. And also the Strength of Israel will not lie, nor repent: for he is not a man that he should repent. Then he said, I have sinned; yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God. So Samuel turned again after Saul: and Saul worshipped : the Lord." Where shall we find a more striking instance of the power of moral greatness? How contemptible is the prince, amid all his grandeur and wealth, as compared with the prophet, notwithstanding his subjection and poverty! All might wish to have been the prophet; but few who could desire to have been the king. To the passages above cited, we may add the awful scene which took place between Saul and Samuel, after the decease of the prophet, on the fearful night which preceded the death of the king. It runs thus: "And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? And the Lord hath done to him as he spake by me: for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David: because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night." How dreadful is this address of the disembodied spirit of the prophet! What a picture of agony in the person of the king! How solemn is truth, when uttered by holy lips, in the ears even of the most ungodly man!-Behold the decision and elevation which eminent piety imparts to Christian character! I might, did space permit, proceed to speak of David, of Solomon, of Elijah, of Elisha, of Jeremiah, of Daniel, of Ezra, of Nehemiah, and others, and to show, that all their characters comprised abundantly the elements of moral greatness; but I must now go on to the New Testament. The office of JOHN THE BAPTIST, who was in all respects an extraordinary character, is the first personage who invites our attention. According to the highest authority in the universe, he was "a burning and a shining light." The Messiah has also spoken to the point of his comparative greatness: "Among them," says he, "that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." After this, it is not left for us to consider whether John was great, but only in what manner that greatness was manifested. John, indeed, required the utmost greatness and dignity of character. He was the harbinger of the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS; and it was in discharging this function that John displayed his marvellous magnanimity. This fact was pointed out in a very affecting manner by the father of John, at the birth of his child. On that remarkable occasion, after a long season of speechless expectation, he closed a burst of sublime inspiration, by thus apostrophising his infant: "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people, by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day-spring from on high hath |